Cambodia cremates beloved late king

AFP, PHNOM PENH

Tue, Feb 05, 2013 - Page 1

Thousands of mourners massed in the Cambodian capital yesterday, as the kingdom cremated its revered former king Norodom Sihanouk, who steered his country through six turbulent decades.

The cremation was part of a weeklong funeral for the mercurial ex-monarch, which started with a lavish procession through the streets of Phnom Penh on Friday and will see his ashes returned to the palace on Thursday.

Sihanouk died of a heart attack in Beijing in October last year, aged 89. His embalmed body had been lying in state since then at the royal palace.

After religious ceremonies led by chanting monks, Sihanouk’s tearful widow, Monique, and son, King Norodom Sihamoni, symbolically lit the pyre.

Smoke was seen rising into the sky from the crematory, an elaborate pagoda built specially for the occasion and illuminated as darkness fell.

A 101-gun salute echoed in the night and fireworks burst over the city.

“It’s the last day for us all to pay homage to the great hero king and to send him to heaven,” Sihanouk’s long-time personal assistant, Prince Sisowath Thomico, said before the cremation.

“It is the day for the whole nation to say goodbye to his majesty. He is the hero of Cambodia,” Thomico said.

Earlier, mourners jostled to get to the front of the line to enter the cremation site to pay their last respects to the king, who was deft at moving with the political tides.

The site was later cleared of the general public before the arrival of official guests, including French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, Japanese Prince Akishino and several Southeast Asian leaders, who bowed in respect.

Thousands of people had already lined up at the crematorium over the weekend for a glimpse of the gilded casket, but the general public was kept several hundred meters away from the site for the actual cremation.

Mourners have also grouped outside the royal palace to hold prayers, light incense and place lotus flowers in front of portraits of Sihanouk.

After the cremation, some of Sihanouk’s ashes will be scattered where the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Tonle Bassac rivers meet. The remainder will be taken to the royal palace on Thursday, where they will be kept in a royal urn in accordance with the former king’s wishes.

A father of 14 children over six marriages, Sihanouk abdicated in 2004 after steering Cambodia through six decades marked by independence from France, civil war, the murderous Khmer Rouge regime, his own exile and finally peace.